Meredith a star in Gothenburg

Double-champion Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum goes for a hat-trick of FEI World Cup titles in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in nine days time with yet another confidence-boosting win under her belt following today's success at the last qualifying round in Gothenburg. On top at 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland three weeks ago, she swept to victory once again in one of the most thrilling jump-off rounds of the entire 2005/2006 series.

“Checkmate was phenomenal today” the reigning champion said afterwards. “He is a horse with an unbelievable talent and he has a lot of fun doing his job – and I have a lot of fun riding him while he is doing it!” she added.

Clever course design from Leopoldo Palacios and Frank Rothenberger saw nine through to the second-round jump-off. Mistakes were spread around the track, with many riders falling foul of the planks that directly followed the triple combination in the centre of the arena at fence four. Others found the twisting S-bend from the vertical at six across the oxer at seven and on to the narrow white gate at eight really difficult to negotiate, with many horses landing too forward after fence seven and leaving riders desperately strugglings to get back in line for eight. The final oxer, placed right beside the in-gate and coming off a corner after the difficult double at fence 12, also claimed a number of scalps but the home side's Peter Eriksson and VDL Cardento were first to steer a clear course and three more Swedes joined them in the jump-off.

First against the clock over the reduced course Cardento clipped the bogey white gate but steered a tight line inside fence 13 to take on the the first two parts of the treble and return a four-fault result in 31.36 seconds, a time that was to prove the quickest of the day. Next in was Denmark's Linnea Ericsson who created a sensation when coming out of nowhere to place fourth at the opening round of the series in Helsinki, Finland last October. Despite her good finishing spot on that occasion Linnea only got two more World Cup starts since then – at Oslo in October and in London in December – and knew that a creditable result was needed today if she was to have any chance of making it to the final so she steered a careful course home with Pero Z Hillock to set the early pace in 37.17 seconds. That was never going to be the winning time however, and Frenchman Jean-Marc Nicolas shaved more than four seconds off it when, in his typically cut-and-thrust fashion, he sent the stallion JPC Modesto Equifoam about his business to stop the clock in 33.09.

Lotta Schulz, another of the growing number of talented young Swedish riders coming to the fore right now, was greeted with roars of approval from the enthusiastic Gothenburg crowd when completing her opening clear round with the Irish-bred Calibra but a stumble on landing over fence seven, now the second obstacle on the track, forced her to circle before the gate at eight and when she also clipped the vertical at fence 12 her total of 18 faults was never going to challenge for the lead.

Maria Gretzer however was right on target and her handsome stallion Spender S, whose scopey jump had made their first-round effort look almost too easy, responded brilliantly to her every demand. Taking the more cautious longer route to the double at fence four, Gretzer cut really tight to fence 12, kicked on to the following oxer at 13 and then kept motoring right down the long run to the last, the vertical that had been fence one first time out.

This final run was to be the decider of the competition but Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson saw his chance of a win fall away when he met the second-last on a bad stride with MacKinley while Michael Whitaker found himself in even more trouble earlier on the track. Trying to make that very tight line from the white gate to the double on the inside of fence 13 he arrived all wrong and Insul Tech Portofino sensibly decided that the second part of the double was an impossible task and stopped. “She didn't see so she had no chance” Whitaker said afterwards, “maybe I was stupid but I was trying to win it” he explained. As it turned out however his effort was still to be rewarded with eighth place and ticket to the final.

With just two left to go, Nicolas was still in the lead but it was still all to play for and Meredith and Checkmate set off as if they were on fire. “On Friday I rode a medium round because Checkmate is an aggressive horse and I didn't want him to get too aggressive. With him its all about pushing at the right moment and so I let him go a bit more today and he is just so fast” she explained afterwards. Letting him run right down to the last Meredith cleared the line in 32.37 seconds and now only Robert Whitaker could stop her from winning her second World Cup qualifier in a row. And the young British rider gave it his best shot, steering the attractive gelding Lacroix to a brilliant round as his father John watched in agony on the sidelines but, risking all with a strong gallop to the last, he hit that for four faults and had to settle for seventh place. Michaels-Beerbaum won by over a half a second with Gretzer in second, Nicolas third, Linnea Ericsson in fourth, Peter Eriksson in fifth and Rolf-Goran Bengtsson in sixth place.

Results (16.04.06)
CSI-W – Gothenburg

1º Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (Ale) / Checkmate 4 / 0/0-32,27
2º Maria Gretzer (Sue) / Spender S / 0/0-32,98
3º Jean-Marc Nicolas (Fra) / Modesto / 0/0-33,09
4º Línnea Ericsson (Din) / Pero-Z Hillock / 0/0-37,7
5º Peter Eriksson (Sue) / Cardento 933 / 0/4-31,36
6º Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (Sue) / Mac Kinley / 0/4-31,95
7º Robert Whitaker (Gbr) / Lacroix 9 / 0/4-32,05
8º Michael Whitaker (Gbr) / Insul Tech Portofino 63 / 0/17-42,94
9º Lotta Schultz (Sue) / Calibra II / 0/18-43,81
10º Kristof Cleeren (Bel) / Andiamo Z / 4-65,12